Radio Technical Officers
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Early Years
Chapter 2: The Training School
Chapter 3: Equipment Installation Records
Chapter 4: The 'Techs' in Antarctica
Chapter 5: The 'Techs' Tell Their Stories
Trevor Donald Tells It All; Life in the Bureau from 1947 to 1989
Ray Clarke Looks Back
Some Memories from Ralph Bulloch
Peter Copland Works in Meteorological Electronics
Some Titbits from Dave Grainger
A Very Modest Tale from Alf Svensson
Adrian Porter Pulls No Punches
Jack Tait Recalls
Some Stories by Colourful Freddie Soutter
Some Snippets from Noel Barrett
Stephen Courbêt Has His Penny Wworth
And a Flyspeck or Two from Lenny Dawson
Some Interesting Reminiscences from Jannes Keuken
Brief Stories from Phil Black
From Gloria West, Wife of the Late Bob West
The Life and Bureau Times of Graham Linnett
Tales Out of School from Bill Hite
Peter Copland on Cyclone Tracy
Peter Broughton Tells the Story of Maralinga
Appendix 1: 'Techs' Roll Call
Appendix 2: Trainee Intakes
Appendix 3: 'Techs' Who Have Served in the Antarctic Region
Appendix 4: Summary of Major Installation Projects
Appendix 5: Summary of Major Equipment Variously Installed at Sites and Maintained by Radio Technical Officers
Index
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Peter Copland on Cyclone Tracy (continued)
At the school it soon got really windy. The glass walls of the building's connecting walkways disappeared, and the upstairs floors of the school became a series of huge organ pipes while most of the ceiling tiles and movable objects were removed through the open doorways. Our families were all ok in a wet basement storeroom, but it was rather noisy for two or three hours. It was the one time I wished I had not given up smoking some six months before. Daylight and, of course, devastation. First, a check our respective houses and the rest of the neighbours. We were lucky, with half a house each; and all the other locals seemed to have survived without any major injuries. Back with the good news to the school. I then went off to try to find out what was left of the Bureau. The airport was covered with wrecked planes. The roads were covered with wrecked cars; probably 20 or so in the two kilometres from our house to the RAAF base. Even a couple upside down in the middle of the highway. The FSU building, which contained the Weather Service Office looked ok, but was very wet and had no power. The radar building and radar were still there and looked ok. Our old workshop was a concrete slab, with some walls. Not surprisingly, there was no power in the radar building, but I could not see anything obviously mechanically wrong with the radar. The roof was off the DCA emergency power station 50 metres away, where, nearby, there was also a very bogged DCA fire engine.The new Regional workshop was a mess. The building was intact but some of the walls and the front glass windows were gone. Also missing was one of our two 2.5 kW portable generators; the other was immediately requestioned and taken to Fannie Bay.
Our Suzuki (the only one in Darwin at that time) was fantastic in the situation. Had my first flat tyre by 7 am; the first of 25 or so. However, it was fairly easy to repair them with my own gear, which was handy as none of the friendly service stations were working. Fortunately, we did not need any fuel for awhile either. Within a day or two almost every wrecked car was wheel-less, and some of the not too wrecked ones as well. One of the main problems was simple communication; usually no phone, no radio and most roads covered with debris and often impassable. I managed to catch up with Regional Director Ray Wilkie later in the morning at the now very damp, hot and not very accessible 7th floor RFC.
Between us we could account for most of the staff, who seemed to have survived without too many broken arms and legs. The other generator from the workshop was now in Ray's custody. He also showed a great amount of encouragement in trying to get the radar back on the air. He thought that he could find enough staff to operate it, as the main Darwin observing station, if I could get it back on the air.
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